Storms
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Cloud Lightning

Hurricane Tomas Hits Eastern Caribbean


CBC News
Sun, 31 Oct 2010 10:54 UTC
Hurricane Tomas damage
© Chris Brandis/Associated PressA woman walks by damaged power lines and infrastructure after the storm hit St. James parish, Barbados, on Saturday.

Hurricane Tomas caused extensive damage to the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent on Saturday night, before weakening to a Category1 storm.

The Category 2 storm was packing winds of 155 km/h when it made landfall. It tore the roofs from homes and knocked out electricity all over the island. But as the storm moved northwest over the Caribbean early Sunday, the winds were clocked at 150 km/h.

St. Lucia, Barbados and Martinique were tallying the damage done by Tomas earlier Saturday. Torrential rain made a number of roads impassible in Barbados and high winds destroyed roofs in several communities.

Authorities in St. Vincent said they had unconfirmed reports that three people died during the storm, including two men who might have been blown off a roof.
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Cloud Lightning

2 Weeks of Flooding in Thailand Kills 57 People


The News & Observer
Wed, 27 Oct 2010 02:34 UTC
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© AP PhotoA Thai boy sits inside his home surrounded by floodwaters near the Chao Phraya River, in Bangkok on Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010.
Heavy downpours that caused rivers to burst around Thailand have killed 57 people in nearly two weeks of flooding that officials are calling the worst in decades, authorities said Wednesday.

The flooding has affected more than 3 million people in 36 of Thailand's 76 provinces, government medical and disaster agencies said. The floods have eased in a third of those provinces.

More than 4 million sandbags were used to erect walls this week in Bangkok along stretches of the Chao Phraya River, which has swelled with runoffs from upper provinces that officials feared could inundate the capital.

So far, flooding in Bangkok has been minimal but riverside residents were warned to be on alert through Friday, after which current high-tide levels were expected to subside.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Massive storm sweeps across country

Rex W. Huppke
Tribune
Tue, 26 Oct 2010 12:45 UTC
Storm spawns twisters, downs power lines and leaves considerable damage in its wake

A powerful, 2,200-mile-wide wind storm plowed across the middle of the country Tuesday, spawning tornadoes and brutal wind gusts stretching from the front range of the Rocky Mountains to the eastern Great Lakes.

"It's a huge storm, and it's dominating the wind pattern and the weather over a big chunk of North America," said WGN-TV meteorologist Tom Skilling in Chicago. "And we're not done with this storm yet. The wind is going to blow for another couple days."

Wind gusts Tuesday were in excess of 60 miles per hour in parts of the Midwest, and several tornadoes were reported in Illinois and Wisconsin.
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Cloud Lightning

Storm Equivalent to Category 3 Hurricane Slams US MidWest


BBC News
Tue, 26 Oct 2010 13:33 UTC
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© UnknownTwo Red Cross workers walk away from a barn that was lifted off its foundation by a tornado Oct. 26, 2010, in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin
The Midwestern US is being battered by heavy rain and strong winds by a storm some forecasters are comparing to a category three hurricane.

Forecasters told residents of the state of Illinois to expect the most powerful storm to hit the region in over 70 years.

Tornado warnings were issued across the US from the state of Arkansas to Illinois's metropolitan hub of Chicago.

The storm delayed flights at the city's O'Hare International Airport.

Severe thunderstorm warnings have been announced across the Midwestern US, as the storm continues to charge through the country - moving from North and South Dakota to the eastern Great Lakes, on the border with Canada.

The storm is carrying with it pressure levels similar to a category three hurricane, meteorologist Amy Seeley said.
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Igloo

Britain freezes on the coldest October night for 17 years as mercury plummets to -6C


Daily Mail
Mon, 25 Oct 2010 15:43 UTC
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Last winter the UK and much of Northern Europe were hit by severe snow and ice
Given the unexpectedly cold nights Britain has been enduring over the last few days, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was January instead of October.

It will come as no surprise then that the wintry conditions made last night the coldest in October for 17 years in some regions.

Temperatures in West Freugh in south-west Scotland dipped to a bone-rattling -5.2C, falling below the previous record of -5.1C which was endured in October 1993.

But it was even colder in Sennybridge, south Wales, where the mercury dropped to -6.4C, beating the -6.2C record set 13 years ago in 1997.

Met Office spokesman Charlie Powell said: 'Last night was the coldest in Sennybridge for 17 years and was very cold everywhere.

'It was well below freezing across the bulk of the UK.'

The outlook for this week is marginally better, with temperatures picking up slightly, although it will remain cold.

Tonight will remain dry with clear skies for most places, although it will be breezy along the North Sea coast with a chance of the odd shower.
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Cloud Lightning

7 die in typhoon-triggered landslide at temple


msnbc.com
Fri, 22 Oct 2010 11:50 UTC
Image
© Associated PressEmergency rescue team members extract a body from the flood debris caused by passing Typhoon Megi at a temple in Ilan county, north eastern Taiwan on Friday.
Seven people were killed when a mudslide buried a Buddhist temple and a bus containing 19 Chinese tourists was missing Friday, as one of the worst typhoons in 50 years battered Taiwan.

Six other people were missing and a number of vehicles were trapped on a highway as Typhoon Megi swept toward southern China, where landfall is expected late Friday or Saturday.

The storm earlier killed 26 people and damaged homes and crops in the Philippines.

Megi dumped a record 45 inches of rain in Taiwan's Ilan county over 48 hours. It had winds of 90 mph and was about 275 miles southeast of Hong Kong on Friday evening local time, the Hong Kong Observatory said.

The seven people who died were at the White Cloud Temple in Suao city along the eastern coast when it was engulfed by the mudslide, Taiwanese cable TV stations reported.
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Cloud Lightning

Two dozen missing in Taiwan as typhoon nears China


XinNews
Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:34 UTC
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© HKO/AFPTwo dozen missing in Taiwan as typhoon nears China
Typhoon Megi unleashed torrential rains over Taiwan leaving two dozen people missing and hundreds more trapped by landslides Friday, as it bore down on cities along China's southeast coastline.

Megi, the strongest storm to hit the northwest Pacific in two decades, has already killed at least 36 people in the Philippines and was expected to make landfall late Friday or early Saturday in Fujian province in southeast China.

Authorities have evacuated more than 150,000 people from low-lying areas of the province, while 10,000 others have been moved to safer ground in Guangdong. Thousands of fishing boats have been ordered not to put to sea.

"Megi could bring the largest concentration of rainfall this year and will have a serious impact on the province's coast," Fujian's civil affairs department said in a statement.

Projections by the Hong Kong Observatory showed the typhoon was likely hit near the southern Chinese cities of Xiamen and Shantou -- between them home to more than seven million people.
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Igloo

First Big Freeze Heading For UK - Snow Forecast This Week


Daily Mail
Mon, 18 Oct 2010 10:54 UTC
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Early morning mist was captured on Sunday morning in the north west - temperatures dipped below freezing for the first time this autumn
Crank up your central heating and get out your thermals... because winter is about to bite.

Icy polar winds are to sweep across the country from tomorrow, with temperatures plummeting to below freezing and up to 2ins of snow forecast for parts of the north by the end of the week.

Millions will wake up to frost this week, but the worst of the weather will hit Scotland and North-east England.

Wednesday will be the coldest day of the week, with temperatures as low as -3C on Tuesday night in rural parts of the north. The mercury will also struggle to rise above freezing overnight in the south.
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Bizarro Earth

One Dead as Typhoon Whips Northern Philippines

Mynardo Macaraig
Agence France-Presse
Sun, 17 Oct 2010 03:00 UTC
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© HKO/Agence France-PresseMap showing the path of Typhoon Megi as it crashes into the Philippines
Super Typhoon Megi slammed into the northern Philippines Monday causing landslides in mountainous areas, tearing roofs off houses, whipping up huge waves along the coast and killing at least one person.

Schools were closed and thousands of people were evacuated across the north of the Philippines' main island of Luzon ahead of the strongest storm to pummel the country this year, rescue and relief officials said.

The northeastern provinces of Isabela and Cagayan were the first to feel the typhoon's fury on Monday morning, chief government weatherman Graciano Yumol said.

"There are landslides in the mountains, we have swells, storm surges and big waves along the coast line, and now we have flood alerts," Yumol said in an interview with GMA 7 television.
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Igloo

Snow, 50-mph winds in picture for Northeastern US


MSNBC
Fri, 15 Oct 2010 16:29 UTC
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© Matt Rourke/APThe first rain from the systems moving into the Northeast started falling Thursday evening in places such as downtown Philadelphia, Pa.
Nor'easter expected to make for messy evening commute, and up to 16 inches of snow in high elevations

Strong winds, heavy rain and even snow moved into the Northeast on Friday, with the weather expected to get worse for evening commutes and overnight.

By late Friday morning, flights into La Guardia and Newark airports were being delayed by more than an hour due to the wind and rain.

Killington, Vt., had five inches of snow Friday morning and other areas above 4,000 feet saw the white stuff as well, Jim Cantore of weather.com reported for MSNBC. By the time the storm blows through on Sunday, he added, some Vermont and New Hampshire mountains could see 16 inches of snow.

Forecasters say two low pressure systems will combine to create a strong nor'easter covering most of the northeastern half of the nation, stretching from the Atlantic to the Great Lakes.

The system will pull moisture and energy in from the Atlantic Ocean, kicking up winds up to 50 mph and rainfall ranging between 1 to 3 inches in most areas.
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